Uzbekistan

The Economy

Chief among the causes of dissension and despair in Uzbekistan is the
country's economic situation. According to United Nations (UN) figures, in
1994 Uzbekistan was one of the poorest of the developed countries in the
world, with the average monthly wage less than US$50. But vast natural
resources suggest the potential for Uzbekistan to become one of the most
prosperous countries in Central Asia, provided the necessary reforms can
be made to unleash that potential. At the end of the Soviet era,
Uzbekistan was rated as one of the least industrialized Soviet republics.
Government reform, with the theoretical goal of achieving a market
economy, moved cautiously and unevenly in the directions of
industrialization and market reform in the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s,
signs indicated a more serious reform effort (see table 6, Appendix).